196, Lot: 447. Estimate $300. Sold for $490. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMANY, Mainz. Heinrich III the Black. 1039-1056. AR Pfennig (17mm, 0.56 g, 12h). + HEINRICVS, crowned facing bust; annulets flanking / + [VRBS MO]GVHCA, church facade, Chi-Rho within; four annulets around. Kluge 139; Dannenberg 793; Bonhoff -. Good VF, toned. Attractive portrait.

Heinrich III, 1017-56, Holy Roman emperor (1046-56) and German king (1039-56), son and successor of Konrad II. He was crowned joint king with his father in 1028, and acceded on Conrad's death in 1039. Under Heinrich III the medieval Holy Roman Empire probably attained its greatest power and solidity. In 1041, Heinrich defeated the Bohemians, who had been overrunning the lands of his vassals, the Poles, and compelled Duke Bratislaus I of Bohemia to renew his vassalage. Although several expeditions to Hungary against the raiding Magyars failed to establish his authority in that country, Heinrich was able in 1043 to fix the frontier of Austria and Hungary at the Leitha and Morava rivers, where it remained until the end of World War I. In the West, Heinrich attempted with some initial success to control particularist tendencies among the duchies. The dukes of Saxony and Lorraine (Lotharingia) offered the most resistance. In Saxony, Heinrich managed to avert rebellion, which, however, erupted after his death. On the death of Duke Gozilo of Lorraine (1044), Heinrich divided the duchy between the duke's two sons. Duke Godfrey, the elder, who received Upper Lorraine, organized numerous revolts against Heinrich; in 1047-50 the counts of Holland and Flanders (Lower Lorraine) joined in the revolt. Godfrey was successively defeated, imprisoned, restored, and expelled again. He went to Italy (1051), where he married (1054) Marchioness Beatrice of Tuscany, mother of Matilda; Godfrey used his Tuscan position to bolster his strength in Germany, and Henry was unable to subdue him. Despite his political involvement Heinrich made religious matters his prime concern and supported monastic reform movements, including the Cluniac order. He branded as simony the customary payments made to the king by new bishops and in 1046 undertook to reform the church. Descending into Italy, he had three rival claimants to the papacy set aside at the synods of Sutri and Rome and was accorded the decisive vote in papal elections. The four German popes named by Henry (including Leo IX) renewed the strength of the papacy, which was to prove the nemesis of his successors. His success in promoting a strong papacy resulted in popes who challenged his authority, particularly regarding lay investiture. This led directly to the Investiture Controversy, a fifty-year struggle between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperors that resulted in the downfall of the latter. On his death his wife Agnes of Poitou assumed the regency for his infant son, Henry IV.